If you suffer with some of the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, you have lots of company. Irritable bowel syndrome afflicts 10% to 15% of all people worldwide. That would be about a billion people around the world who suffer from the same affliction. It affects about 1/5 of Americans, and is a little bit more common in women than in men. In many places around the world it is caused by poor living conditions. In places like the United States, Canada, Europe, and other industrialized nations, this affliction may have its roots in stress or bad eating habits.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition characterized by bloating, diarrhea, cramps, constipation and abdominal pain and discomfort. In America it usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. By this period of life people are starting to suffer the effects of unhealthy lifestyles like inactivity and bad eating habits. Especially where these symptoms are the result of inactivity, aerobic activity can often correct and reverse much of the damage.

The entire system of an unconditioned person is weak because his inactivity has caused his cardiovascular system to degenerate. Weakened lungs and heart provide the body with a very meager and inadequate blood-oxygen supply so that muscles cannot operate at full capacity. Aerobic activity conditions the body and greatly enhances the blood-oxygen supply to every tissue in the body, including the core muscles that move food and nutrition through the system. The result is that the body’s digestive muscles can perform their function and eliminate waste more quickly and efficiently. Read the rest of this entry »